Nokia Releases Font to Work in Any Language

London based typographic designer Dalton Maag has set up an exciting new font for Nokia that works globally and across any language. ‘Nokia Pure’ is part of the rebranding process of the Finnish company that amassed more than $48 billion in revenue in 2011. Despite this, due to the vast competition in what has become the world of the smartphone, Nokia’s market shares have in fact diminished. Therefore, this unique selling point is seen as the breakthrough needed to retain Nokia’s place as a market leader within global communications.

The multinational font incorporates the alphabets of various languages, including Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Arabic, Hebrew, and Thai. The use of Latin, the cornerstone of many languages, seemed the natural starting point for Dalton Maag. “This is the most widely used script natively, by about 2 billion people globally. It sets the tone for the visual expression and functionality,” Maag explains when talking to Fast Co. Design.

Using different calligraphic styles, each font is intended to reflect the cultural history of the language depicted. As pointed out by Daalton Maag via designtaxi, the new font programme had to mirror the trademarks of Finnish design: “simplicity, clarity, functionality and beauty of form—in short, Pure”.

To begin with, the development of a user interface (UI) font group made up of Light, Regular,
and Bold weights paved the way for the designers, fonts that are now called Nokia Pure Text. In the same vein, the display font group consists of Light, Regular, and Bold just as the Text fonts do, however, the display font also embodies Thin and ExtraBold weights. While Nokia Pure was initially designed to be legible on mobile devices and digital screens, the option for print across all of Nokia’s communications will also be available.

Research into the construction of letters and the art-form of calligraphy helped the designers to devise the scripts. While it is certainly aesthetically pleasing, the font is mainly intended to ensure the reader is able to process the content in a simplistic way.

The typeface was first launched at the “Nokia Pure Exhibition” and has already won the prestigious award that is the graphics category of this year’s UK Design Museum Design Awards. Nokia Pure also became part of the Designs of the Year 2012 exhibition which ran from 8 February to 4 July 2012.

Focusing on the curvature of the individual alphabet letters of several global languages this newrebranding initiative allows a distinct platform for multinational communications taking Nokia into the next generation of the mobile phone era.

Jo Gifford is a designer, writer, blogger and founder of Cherry Sorbet Creative. Working primarily in the beauty, fashion and lifestyle industries her work spans graphic design for print and web, social media management and training, copywriting and editorial for on and offline publications. You will find her blogging as Dexterous Diva, on Twitter both as Dexterous Diva and Cherry Sorbet, and on Linked In.

Newest Blog Entries

The Californian artist has created a series of these pencil drawn illustrations. Each one is drawn around the purposely placed coffee stain and they became so popular that Asmann now has prints of some...

Although according to the Guardian there is no roll-out date yet for this wonderful new passport, Neue Design Studio are now working with Norway’s National Police Directorate to implement passport security requirements. The Norwegian...

Sign up for our newsletter!

We will send you the latest graphic design news and information directly to your inbox. Whether it be an announcement of a new design related event or the latest publication of a book, you will be informed!